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Welcome to eWillys.com, a website for vintage jeep enthusiasts. I update this website nearly every day with jeep deals, jeep history, interesting reader projects, jeep related info, and more.
These quick searches can help you find things on eBay. People list in the wrong categories all the time, so don't be surprised to see brochures in the parts area for example.
The links to posts below show jeeps grouped by models, condition, and other ways. Some of these jeeps are for sale and others have been sold. If you are unsure whether a vehicle is still for sale or not, email me at d [at] ewillys.com for more info.
There are plenty of interesting, unusual, historic and surprising stories related to Jeeps and their owners. In addition, some of these features have nothing to do with jeeps. This link will display all featured stories starting from the latest.
Looking for parts and not sure where to go? There are a variety of large and small new and used parts sellers both online and offline.
Importantly, the allure of buying a project jeep can be romantic. The reality of restoring a jeep can be quite different, expensive and overwhelming without the right tools and resources. So, tread carefully when purchasing a "project". If you have any concerns about buying a vintage jeep, or run across a scam, feel free to contact me for help, comments or concerns .
Mark has a nice article at Jeeptruck.com about Don Howard, a former horse race jockey, who ran a jeep rental business out of Creede, Colorado. Don’s family has used jeeps for several generations, partly because the family has a ranch along the Continental Divide at 10,500 feet.
Sebastian and 13 of his fellow Flat Fender Club of Butler Members made the round trip in a van from Pennsylvania to the Midwest Willys Reunion today. Sebastian reports it was a fun-filled, but long day. He took a variety of pictures and has been kind enough to share some with us. He will be publishing more pictures and full write up at his blog on Sunday.
http://flatfenderclubofbutler.wordpress.com/
Below is a group shot from Saturday:
Here is the one-of-a-kind CJ-3B Surrey:
Here is Craig’s tour jeep:
While the folks in Ohio played with their jeeps and the people in Moab explored with their wagons and trucks, I got to clean my parents garage. I have wanted to tackle this project for a couple years now, but haven’t been able to for one reason or another.
However, this week, with dad still recovering from surgery (and having a tough time with it — nothing like having a persistent cough after having your sternum sliced open), Ann and I had some free time in between helping him and mom. So, for the past three days we have been unpiling junk in the garage, sweeping up varmit feecees, organizing the unorganizable, shop vacing, and cleaning.
While we didn’t clean everything, we tackled enough of the garage to feel like we had won the battle. Even better, when we began there was only enough room to fit one car. Now, two vehicles can fit with room to spare. Along the way I discovered some treasures, such as some brass inner tube caps (now on Biscuit), assorted transfercase and transmission rebuilt kits, the vin plate for my dad’s 1960 CJ-5 (which seems an appropriate direction to go with a next build project), and a Warn Overdrive Parts Catalog, which I think might be kind of rare. I’ll post the entire catalog online in the next few days. Below is the clean garage and the cover of the catalog.
Glenn forwarded a couple pages of this old catalog for hi-performance parts that included a few for the jeep. He sent these to me after a short discussion with Scott, who races using F-head and L-head motors (more on that to come).
According to Scott, “I have bored them up to .092 oversized and I have had about 6 different cams made by crane cams. The motor I have had the best luck with so far is .060 over with dome style pistons. It has 1.7 ratio roller rockers. It is a F head. I cut the side of the head open and welded the water jackets and built an intake manifold that is 8″ high. With a 500 cfm holley ive been able to get 7000 rpm out of it.”
Scott’s experimentation has been done simultaneous to Sam at Flatfender Willys, who experimented, just for fun, with hi-po parts in a flat head with modern honda fuel injection. Sam did a few other things to the engine, but I don’t precisely remember what. Sam and a friend drove the motor hard, before it finally gave out, though a couple transfer cases and a drive line gave out before the motor did.
Here are the two pages from Glenn.
Robin shared this humorous advertisement. The seller either carefully, or not, decided on a peculiar abbreviation for the word ‘assembly’.
You can read the original ad here: http://willysforsale.com/ads/willys-horn-ass/
Here is a snapshot of it.
Buz spotted this Mahindra at the team-bhp website.
He notes, “The post below this one mentions “One will find hoards of such jeep rotting” in India. I guess they aren’t going to the scrap mill like over here.”
During my last visit to my parents’ house, I tried starting Biscuit. The engine would turn over, but wouldn’t fire. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that the electric fuel pump no longer worked. So, I decided on my next visit I’d change from the electric to the stock manual pump.
Today, I took on that project. While a very simple changeover in theory, the practice turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected. For example, the first step in the process required me to break into my tool box, as the keys to my tool box disappeared during my move last summer. After spending an hour searching for the keys, I finally gave up and ‘removed’ the lock’ (with hammer, screw driver, and little finesse).
It was surprisingly easy to remove the lock. However, it was surprisingly difficult to get the lock portion of the drawers to unlock. I won’t bore you with the embarrassing details, but let’s just say that it took us about an hour and half to finally get the tool chest unlocked. Oh, good times!
Next, I had to start pulling off the electrical pump and installing the manual one. It just seemed like I dropped every socked a hundred times, grabbed the wrong wrench with each reach, had to search through the barn to find rarely used tools I had stowed away, and more. Nothing seemed to be easy about the project.
Finally, about 5pm, Ann wandered out to see how I was. I was not good. The socket has just slide off my socket wrench extension again, which meant I had to climb down onto the tarp, scoot under the jeep, and retrieve it, again. I shared some choice words about Biscuit with Ann. She decided to take a picture and post it on Facebook Here is the picture and what she wrote:
Today, under a cloud of tools, grease, and a broken fuel pump came the flood of curse words and the exclamation from Mr eWillys.com himself…. David Eilers “hates Jeeps” 🙁
It took me until about 7pm, but I did finally get the fuel pump installed and the hoses attached. Even better, everything worked. So, now Biscuit and I are all lovely dovey again.
So, I’m done with jeeps for today. Updates tomorrow.
Paul sent this to my inbox today. A couple days ago he removed his stainless steel body from his frame so he can complete the work on his frame. It’s a good thing he listened to his intuition!
“I spent a few hours yesterday in the connex cleaning up my mess and double checking the security of the Willys body resting on the 2X4 support framework. For the most part I felt the body was safely held three feet above the floor but my mind kept coming back to the thought “Would it stay in position during an earthquake?” Since it’s much faster and easier to add additional support structure than it is to repair damaged stainless body panels I fitted eight more bracing legs to the existing body holder. I really didn’t think any additional strength was necessary but I’d sleep easier with this bit of overkill engineering and the cost in time and money was negligible.
While taking a shower this morning I was surprised when the house started rocking back and forth as several sharp jolts announced the arrival of an earthquake. The quake was a small one, only about 4.6 but it was close to Anchorage (about ten miles away) and it was over quickly. After getting dressed I hurried to the connex, opened the door and viewed a beautiful sight. The Willys body was safely resting on the framework undamaged and perfectly aligned on the supports.
I realize rebuilding Jeeps can be an experience in frustration when money and time conflict with dreams but I really could do without adding earthquakes into the mix. I’m slow enough as it is, I don’t need Mother Nature increasing my heart rate with exciting special effects. On the other hand I’m happy the Willys is safe, the body support held and I don’t have to repair any damaged body panels. Now all I have to do is to hurry to get the frame work accomplished and reattach the body to the chassis before anymore earthquakes visit my workspace.”
Gerald forwarded pictures of this sign (thanks!). While the Willys Wagon is featured prominently on this sign, I couldn’t find any evidence of its existence elsewhere within the restaurant. Layton’s is located in Ocean City, Md, and is supposed to be pretty good according to Urbanspoon.
UPDATE: JUST A REMINDER
Sign up now for the Moab Overland Rally, a tribute to Willys Wagon and Trucks. Click on the picture to connect to the website, http://www.willysrally.com/
On our way home from the WAAAM on Saturday we decided to drive through The Dalles, a small town whose name isn’t pronounced like ‘Dallas’ but rather like ‘The Dallzzzz”. While driving through I took an unplanned turn, then crossed over to a side street where I spotted this CJ-3A (which of course required a few pictures).
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was on eBay.
This probably seemed like a good idea at the time ….
” For auction is my 1946 Willys CJ2A “modified”. This vehicle sits upon a cut down 1973 K-5 Chevrolet chassis. It has a cast iron 4 speed manual transmission and cast iron gear driven transfer case! Rear differential is 12 bolt limited slip and front is 10 bolt with manual lock outs. Disc brakes up front and drums in the rear. There is currently no engine!! It was last fitted with a 250 cid GM inline six. Just about anything with a Chevrolet bolt pattern can be made to fit! The top was custom fabricated and appears to be aluminum. The body has, what I would consider, a lot of rust, but is all there and still has many usable parts. Everything about the driveline worked fine when the engine was pulled in 2009. It has been sitting ever since (except to be towed).”
Don forwarded us some pictures of his M-38 and M-35. It took him one year to build the M-38 from parts. I think it looks terrific!
He joked that he built it to match his M-35 and says he has to keep busy doing something, noting he doesn’t want to become a couch potato. Thanks for sharing Don!
UPDATE: The GPW Scam is back with the same pics. I’ve flagged about twenty of them over the past couple days. The price varies, but always around $5000. Below is the picture most often used:
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FROM September 24, 2011 … Here is how the scam works.
Rob is sharing the email exchange he had with the GPW scam:
Here is the latest on the 42 GPW scam including the fake invoice from Google Checkout. The request for the Western Union money order is not how Google Checkout transfers funds.
Ralph’s CJ-2A. More on his Jeep later.
It was a gorgeous day at the WAAAM military day. Ann and I are both sun burnt and relaxing to a couple bloody marys to help us cool down. We met a lot of nice folks, sold books and t-shirts, and got to check out a variety of jeeps.
Brian, who is the resident jeep guy at the WAAAM has about eight jeeps (I lost count, so I could be wrong on the exact number) just at the museum. Some have been restored and some are hidden away in one of the ancillary hangers, which Ann and I got to see. Brian’s jeep of choice is the M-38A1, but he has a variety of them at various places he owns. After talking with Brian a bit, he offered to show us his dad’s 1976 CJ-5 that he bought new. He said it only has 5000 miles on it and sports the original LEVI package. I have never seen an original LEVI package like he showed us. Even Brian doesn’t get to drive his dad’s jeep … (see the pic at the bottom of the post – everything is original).
I wanted to thank Ralph for dropping by in his CJ-2A. He has read eWillys for a few years now and lives in Hood River. He came by to enjoy the planes, meet me and purchase a book. Later in the day we walked out to check out his jeep. Thanks for coming by Ralph!
Thanks to Blaine for dropping by as well. I’ll see you again at the FC Get Together!
Here are a few pics:
My gal just loves a big gun. We learned from one of the visitors that the reason these jeeps don’t tip over when the 106mm cannon fires is that it actually fires in two directions, backwards and forwards. She was very happy to explain this to me!
Me working hard
All Original CJ-5 with LEVI Package
Roberto forwarded these two illustrations. The process of illustrating the Commando is also shown. Thanks Roberto!
You can see the entire slideshow here
I learned about these over at the airfieldinformationexchange.org forum. The CJ-3B Page covers these as well in more depth. There are pictures of these at an FAR site as well: http://www.rafanddfsa.co.uk/Photgraphs.htm#Oldies
These pictures could be straight out of a scenic shot from the Pacific Northwest, but instead were taken at the annual October Barfrosttreffet in Norway. Even is part of a club called the Flatfender Fellows and shared these wonderful pictures. This area shown below is about an hour north of Oslo.
UPDATE: From both emails I received and comments below, the consensus seems to be that the framework was built for pushing branches away, also called limb risers. As Brett suggested, I googled ‘tree limb risers’ and found something similar at a hummer site.
Gary’s father shot this photo around 1959 on the island of Tinian, which is part of the Northern Mariana Islands. He was wondering if anyone knows how the front rack was used?
UPDATE: Price dropped to $850
(04/09/2012) To quote the seller, “Be the envy of your neighborhood”.
“For sale is a one of a kind “Willys high hood” replica Jeep go cart. I custom built the body out of 20 gauge sheet metal with an inner steel support frame. It’s based on a riding lawn tractor frame and running gear, with hydrostatic forward and reverse drive. I changed out the drive pulleys so it goes plenty fast now. The motor is a 16 horsepower 2 cylinder that runs great. Comes complete with functional head and running lights. It’s all around a fun go kart. Perfect for your kids, grandkids, parades or to cruise around hunting camp. You could even put the mower deck back on it and be the envy of your neighborhood!! It does have a tow hitch on it for small utility/lawn trailers.Please call for more information, I’ll entertain REASONABLE offers. I do have a lot of time and a good bit of money in materials building this thing. No text messages please. $850 o.b.o Pete @ 503-830-0834 P.S. I can possibly modify your riding lawn mower, call for details.”
http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/for/3003839679.html
Like a bear emerging from it’s cave after a long winer, Paul temporarily removed his custom M-38 from its Alaskan lair.
He writes, “The garage was opened and the Willys was pulled out into the early morning light today. The poor Jeep was coated with sanding dust which I removed by blasting the body with high pressure air and followed that with a water rinse so you’ll notice the water droplets clinging to the sheet metal. Anyway, with all the glass installed, the stainless wiper arms and blades mounted and most all of the major work done this project is looking pretty good to me. I need to work on the frame welding up the extra holes, finish the radiator mount and double check everything before the frame gets sandblasted one more time before getting powder coated glossy black.
When my new sheet metal brake arrives I’ll finish remaking the fuel tanks, I wasn’t happy with the first set I built so I scrapped them and started over with a slightly different design. Viewing the Willys outdoors from a distance is so different from the usual close up view in a packed garage I’ve become accustomed to and I get a better idea of what the finished Willys will look like. I think this Jeep will cause people to stop and take a second look but that might be wishful thinking on my part. Either way, I’m happy with the progress (I’ll admit I’ve taken much longer than I’d originally planned) and there’s more to do but I’m still a happy guy.
Over 4,000 hours of fabrication time to get to this point and still many more hours of work are necessary to complete this rebuild but I’m not tired. I’ve learned a lot along the way and I’m reasonably pleased with my quality so far.”
According to this Pakistani Blog (in English?) this CJ-3B was “The Jeep of Indian Major General Parasad; he left it and ran away during a retaliation attack by Pakistani forces”. It was part of the 1965 War. I hope the Pakistani forces didn’t blow it up.
http://www.defenceblog.org/2011_10_01_archive.html
This image comes from Dreamstime.com, a royalty-free (though not all free) stock photography website. There are a variety of jeep images there too. You can see all the images at http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-playground-toy-image14938897
Here’s another playground jeep-styled toy I found on Flicker.
Gerald forwarded me an email about this unusual car. Built for the 1940 World Fair, this transparent 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six was sold at auction for $388,000 in the summer of 2011. This is the first time I’ve seen it. You can read more at Hemmings:
“The 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six “Ghost Car,” first displayed at the New York World’s Fair and later at the Smithsonian Institution, was sold Saturday for $308,000.
Originally built for $25,000, the car with a Plexiglas body was the first transparent car built in America . Another was built the following year, but its whereabouts are unknown.
“This is the only one known to exist,” said Alain Squindo, a car specialist for RM Auctions, which held the auction for the “Ghost Car” and other specialty vehicles in Plymouth , Mich. “It’s a very original car.”
The Ghost Car was first displayed at the 1939/1940 New York World’s Fair, Squindo said. It toured a number of dealerships, and then was at the Smithsonian in Washington , D.C. for a number of years.
It has been owned by the same family since the 1980s. “They were rather sad to see their beloved car go,” Squindo said. He could not disclose the name of the buyer.
The car has 86 miles on it, picked up by being driven in and out of dealerships for displays. It was a collaboration between GM and Rohm & Haas chemical company, which made the Plexiglas. Structural metal underneath was given a copper wash and all hardware, including the dashboard was chrome-plated.”
